The seemingly impossible task of putting life back into the sherry market is being attempted by First Drinks Brands. It took on the agency for Gonzalez Byass world leading fino sherry Tio Pepe a year ago and the two companies have been working on a strategy for building sales growth at this premium end of the market. The result is a completely new look which takes the brand away from its sherry heritage and into modern wine styling, coupled with a commitment to spend £2m supporting the brand every year for the next three years. This compares with the £300,000 a year that it has been receiving. The media support begins in May featuring a press and poster campaign using a humorous theme and the strapline Always look on the Dry Side of Life.' This targets 30 something wine lovers. Nothing as ambitious as this has been attempted since Harvey's Bristol Cream went into blue glass in 1994 and changed the names and packaging of the rest of its range in 1996 to Club, Isis and Dune. Since then the sector has had low level marketing support and has been in gradual decline. In its heyday in the late 1970s, sherry sold 16 million cases in this country. This has dropped back to less than nine million. By itself, Tio Pepe can have only a limited impact on the market. It has 15% of the fino sector which, in turn, has 14% of the £149m sherry market. But First Drinks marketing manager Jeremy Rockett believes the right approach will lead to volume and value growth. "Our extensive research showed that the product is OK, its problem is that it is in a category called sherry'. We needed to move it away from the sweet, sticky connotations of the category." For the third time in its 150 year history, the bottle and label were redesigned. And the new tapered style of the bottle meant a new £600,000 bottling line had to be installed to cater for it. Regional sales director Martin Skelton said: "Our core consumers drink Gonzalez Byass because they like it, but they realise to be seen doing so is a bit naff, so they don't serve it to others or drink it in the on-trade. If we can make it fashionable they will drink more." {{DRINKS }}

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